Should they rent or buy? What were they looking for in a home? Where should they live? Could they stick to their price range?

And there was one more consideration _ they also had to plan their wedding.

So the Milwaukee couple took a divide-and-conquer approach. Josh Tanty, 27, handled much of the house-hunting matters while the bride-to-be, 25, planned much of the wedding.

The Tantys are typical of a growing trend of newlyweds who buy before getting married, said Mary Deeken, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage of Milwaukee.

It can be hectic planning a wedding and house shopping, but many of Deeken's newlywed clients do both.

"They're ready to buy," Deeken said. "They have the motivation to purchase."

However, not all couples are able to buy before they are wed. Amarillo residents Erin and Rusty Matthews started shopping for their home about five months after their wedding. Matthews said she and her husband wanted to take time to decide what kind of house they wanted. They also wanted to find the right lender, someone who could coach the first-time buyers through the process, she said.

After eight months of searching, the Tantys found their four-bedroom home seven months before their June wedding.

Living together before the wedding wasn't an option. So Josh Tanty, a sales consultant for pharmaceuticals company, moved in right away while Amber Tanty, an elementary teacher, settled in with her future in-laws until the wedding.

The couple knew they didn't want a ranch-style home or a fixer-upper. They also had to stay in Milwaukee so Amber Tanty could fulfill her residency requirement as a teacher in the Milwaukee public school system.

Josh Tanty liked the idea of a basement that had potential to be furnished and a nice back yard.

Their home fits all of the above.

The downside? It only has one bathroom, which they realize could be a problem. And an alley runs behind the house, something they didn't really want.

But it's close to Catholic schools, where they want to send the three kids they're anticipating, although they plan to move from this home eventually.

"We had the similar idea for the most part," Amber Tanty said.

Eric and Jenny Bleimehl were married Aug. 12, 2000, and only just recently closed on their new home in Menomonee Falls, Wis.

They have been saving for a down payment while renting an apartment. The Bleimehls started looking for a house in January and were disappointed when the homes they liked sold quickly in the competitive market.

There is another reason they were eager to own their own home: they are expecting their first baby in February and their apartment just didn't have the space they needed.

Matthews, a business banking associate at Wells Fargo, said she and her husband had to think about the kind of home they wanted. Her husband is finishing his education at West Texas A&M University and will apply to pharmacy school, so they both knew their first home would be a starter home, she said.

"We didn't want to overextend ourselves while he's going to pharmacy school in the next four years," she said.

"We had different ideas about what we were looking for in a house, but we both wanted a nice neighborhood to live in. We still wanted to be able to travel and do fun things."

The suburban life appealed to them, too, Jenny Bleimehl, 28, said. The towns of Brookfield and Germantown were high on their list of possible new addresses, mostly because of the convenience of malls, restaurants and other stores. And the school systems were a huge plus, she said.

Like the Tantys, the Bleimehls didn't want a fixer-upper. Both work full time and were thrilled when they found a house that required minimal work.

A house can be perfect for one partner but unsatisfactory for the other, Deeken said. She said learning to "let go" is important, and that, invariably, a house will be found that both can agree on.

She knows this from experience: Deeken is a newlywed herself. She married a little more than a year ago and has a 2-month-old son, Davis. Her former apartment had hardwood floors and Spanish plaster. Her current home has more of her husband's tastes, such as carpeting.

Discussing credit histories and financial situations could cause disagreements, but this is a subject that must be broached, Deeken said. If one partner has bad credit, it can mean the difference between approval for a home loan and a letter of rejection.

"If one has bad credit, it can hurt them. They really need to get approved for a home loan before they go out and look. You might be able to qualify for more money that way."

Matthews said new homeowners should do their research when they first decide they want to buy a home.

"Before you go to your Realtor, go to your lender so you know what you can work with and what you can afford," she said. "Then, when you (start looking at homes), you can say 'I've got this amount of money and I'm pre-qualified for this loan."'

However, many of Deeken's newlywed clients are college graduates with established careers and incomes who waited to marry until they felt settled, which tends to make matters more simple.

Couples typically sign both names on papers associated with the house, Deeken said, including mortgages and offers to purchase.

An exception to this rule would be if one partner has bad credit, which means it would make more sense to put the loan under the other partner's name.

Other than credit histories, another aspect a lender takes into consideration before determining approval for a loan is how much money a couple has saved, said Brian Fendry, president of the Milwaukee lending company Mortgage Matters Inc.

Robinson said it's important that couples not spend all of their money on a down payment for the house.

She said a couple should have at least three months' of savings so they can fall back on that money in case something goes wrong with the home.

"A lot of people save and put their last penny into the home, and then they move in, but the water heater breaks," she said. "People (need) to understand that things happen, life happens. If they have money after the closing (costs), then they can weather those items, that life happening."

Contrary to popular belief, a house loan from a parent does not work against young borrowers.

"If it's gift money, it works just as well for them," Fendry said.

Besides, the trend these days is to put as little money down as possible - anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent of the cost of the house depending on credit histories.

As for the Tantys' advice to newlyweds about to embark on a house-hunting journey, they say patience is a must.